Ban Assault Weapons Now & Name The Bills For Impact

I’m writing to urge you, once again, to ban assault weapons all of makes and classes and in favor of strict gun safety laws.   However, to help these bills be more of rallying cry I suggest the following.   My belief is that many pieces of gun safety legislation, well-meaning though they are, are mis-named, obscure and obtuse. In other words, they don’t have good names that are easy for people to remember and hashtag, and can repeat back to their legislators, neighbors, and local officials. The Affordable Care Act was a good name, it told you something about it, and it was easy to recall what it’s about. Those are the cardinal rules of good marketing.   We suggest renaming many of these gun safety acts after:   a. Victims of Gun Violence (with permission) or; b. Locations where these terrible tragedies occurred.   Some examples:   1.      The Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act becomes “The Sandy Hook Act” because the lingering tragedy is that the victims’ families could not even sue for recompense in the aftermath of that horrible event. 2.     The Assault Weapons Ban ought to attach the name The Parkland Act to it as it gets re-introduced.     What does this do? It instantly gives voters a reference point to the tragedy, a powerful emotional attachment to the law, and it encourages them to read more about what the law is designed to prevent. Putting these victims or place names to a law instantly shields the legislation from undue criticism about its intent – to save lives in memory of those that have been lost.   Yes, I’m talking about marketing. It sounds cheap and exploitative in the wake of every tragedy. But if it gets peoples’ attention and most importantly SUPPORT, and they don’t let their Representatives do nothing — again. There is a risk that if the law is deceptive that this won’t work any better, but Republicans do this all the time, put emotional, fancy and often deceptive names on things. Sloganeering is unfortunately here to stay in our Internet-driven world.   Obviously, the laws for gun safety need to be good ones, and I have read nearly all of them that have come out in the last few years following these tragedies. This naming convention could have real effect on people’s ability to absorb and retain the intent of the law – because emotions allow you to recall things quickly to the surface.   Tapping into the American people’s emotions with a name might seem exploitative, but judiciously used, as in the case of re-naming gun safety legislation for maximum emotional impact, might just tip the scales to get it through Congress this time.   But enough is enough. We Must Ban Assault Weapons. Period.